Going Bald III

My cancer metastasized to my bones in late 2001, but my first treatment after the metastasis was with the targeted therapy Herceptin, plus hormonal therapy, so I did not lose my hair.

After I’d been on this regimen for a while, I had “disease progression” and had to do chemo a couple of times, in addition to the Herceptin. I know I did Taxol a second time, and I also had Navelbine.

I didn’t lose my hair with the Navelbine, but I did with the Taxol. This was when my younger son Robin was in 9th grade and I was on weekly Taxol for six months. (Plus Avastin toward the end of this series of treatments, because of new research that came out at about that time on how well Taxol and Avastin worked in combination. I was also still getting Herceptin.)

Robin did NOT want to be seen at school or school events with a bald mom (He never cared when he was 8 or 9, but 14 is a different age altogether). I also respected his wish not to be known at school at the kid whose mom had cancer, and we kept it very quiet.

As a result, I wore a wig for the first time. A friend of mine loaned me a human hair wig that could have been made for me: the color was a perfect match, and the style, a straight, chin-length bob, was the way I had worn my hair for years.

I wore the wig with a hat, usually my brown velvet beret, and it looked great.

A wig, especially a natural hair one, is a lot more work than the bald look. You have to wash it, and dry it, and style it, and keep it on a wig stand. And putting it on straight and anchoring it properly takes practice.

But I did enjoy the fact that no one could tell I was doing chemo, yet again.

World's Greatest haircut
When I have hair, I wear it like this. A barber named Chez, who works out of a little retro barbershop on Lower Queen Anne in Seattle, cuts my hair.

@ Jeanne Sather 2007.